get windows for aspire 5735z

Due to a boo boo on my part, my Aspire 5735z now has no operating system.

The boo boo: I was preparing the laptop to give to my 11-year-old nephew. I decided the easiest way was to restore the system (Vista) to factory settings. (I didn't mind losing the data, apps, and settings on the system.) So I booted up my recovery disc, told it to "Restore system to factory default", and said yes to all the warning messages. The "restore partition" window appeared, and the process chugged along happily for several minutes - but then it stopped and said "please insert next disc". I don't have a "next disc"! (I guess I made the boo boo when I made the recovery disc, many years ago.) So now, when I power up, I just get "BOOTMGR is missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

Can anyone tell me how to get Windows (either Vista or 7) back installed, up, and running on this machine?

~ Thanks in advance for your help!

~ Ken

Accepted answers

kenatsun

The Acer Store said they no longer offer recovery discs for this relic, and I don't have any connections to get a copy of Vista.

But just as I had decided that this machine is history, a last-minute miracle occurred. I remembered that I still had the original HDD in a drawer somewhere. I dug it out and put it into the computer, and it still booted up. So I made recovery discs from it (remembering, this time, to make both of them Smiley Tongue ), put the new HDD back in the machine, restored the system to it (with a fair amount of trial-and-error), and it's up and running!

Laurent, I'm really grateful to you for sticking with me through all these twists and turns. Without your help, I'd have given up long ago.

~ Thanks so much!

~ Ken

All comments

laurent_14

Hi Ken,

If you have always the original HDD, you can recover Windows Vista from the recovery partition:

Watch this video.

kenatsun

Thanks, laurent_14 ~

My original physical HDD was replaced several years ago. The repair shop that did it copied the old drive's contents onto the new one. But I don't know if they copied the recovery partition.

Anyway, the instructions in the video you posted fail at the point where I'm pressing alt + F10 repeatedly in order to bring up the eRecover process. Instead, I just get the "BOOTMGR is missing" screen as before. The previous step showed that the D2D Recovery is turned on properly:

Would you say that means I don't have a recovery partition on this HDD?

If that is the case, do you know how I can get a replacement Vista that I can install?

~ Ken

IMG_20160211_134820.jpg

laurent_14

Could you check in the bios utility (your picture) if the HDD (IDE) is in first position in the boot tab?

kenatsun

I think it's not on top - see:

Should I move it to the top?

IMG_20160211_161534.jpg

laurent_14

Yes on the top of the list and don't forget to save and exit [F10]. It restarts automatically.

Thanks for your pictures... very useful. Few pictures are better than a long speech.

kenatsun

The setup page now looks like this, which I think is as it should:

Alas, when I do the alt-F10 step, I still get "BOOTMGR is missing".

IMG_20160211_170928.jpg

laurent_14

Start up normally your laptop. no ALT+F10 for the moment.

kenatsun

I still get "BOOTMGR is missing".

laurent_14

Ok so you need recovery media DVDs (2). May be you can buy these ones from your Acer store.

I have a doubt because Windows Vista is an old OS. In my country, we can still buy them for certain models.

Do you know someone who owns a genuine DVD version of Vista or ISO file?

peptobismal

Ummm... actually, what I think is really happening here is the Windows wants to be first thing. I was racking my brain trying and trying to get the recovery to install... it kept getting stuck etc. I had to trick it into thinking it was installing on the first partition.

Also, if it is indeed your BootMgr missing... Hiren's Boot CD is my best friend... I recommend it to everyone when it comes to imaging or needing to repair your system... it actually has one of its first options to repair the BootMgr/NTLDR missing prompts.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/

kenatsun

The Acer Store said they no longer offer recovery discs for this relic, and I don't have any connections to get a copy of Vista.

But just as I had decided that this machine is history, a last-minute miracle occurred. I remembered that I still had the original HDD in a drawer somewhere. I dug it out and put it into the computer, and it still booted up. So I made recovery discs from it (remembering, this time, to make both of them Smiley Tongue ), put the new HDD back in the machine, restored the system to it (with a fair amount of trial-and-error), and it's up and running!